Today is the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day our world changed forever. As I've heard many say over the course of days leading up to the anniversary, I remember that day like it was yesterday. It remains quite clear in my memory bank, as it was not only a day of terrible tragedy for our nation, for our world, but it was the day that my innocence was truly lost.
My mom and I were at home. It was my Senior year of high school. I was 17 years old. I was getting ready for the day, had just stepped out of the shower, when I heard my mom talking on the phone with my Dad in the kitchen. I remember walking down the hall, towel still wrapped around my head, unsure of why my mom had such shock and sadness in her voice, and there was a sense of great unease in the air. She told me to turn on the news, a plane had flown in to a building in NYC. It wasn't clear to us at that time that it was intentional, that the plane had been hijacked. We stared at the images on the screen, unable to register the reality of what was happening. The news correspondents would go full minutes without saying anything at all, just sighs, or utterances of disbelief.
We spent all day watching the events unfold at school. Each class was spent glued to the tv screen. The adults in our lives who we were used to receiving guidance from, who always seemed to have it together, have all the answers, seemed just a shocked {if not more so} than us, their students.
It seemed unreal then, and in some ways, it still does. American life changed that day. Our reality, our sense of stability, of security, altered in a way that has left us forever marked. I remember thinking that our world would never be the same, that we had no idea how or in what capacity we would be able to move forward, if at all. How could we rebuild? Why had this happened?
It was my first real experience with how truly cruel and inhumane people could be. I was 17. I had no real gauge of horror, of senseless loss of human life, other than what I had studied in history class, read in books, saw in movies or on tv in remote places of the world that I had never visited. It had never hit home like that until then. I was afraid. I was confused. I couldn't understand how people could be so heartless, so unimaginably horrific --- on purpose.
My boyfriend {now husband} was also 17, as were most of my guy friends. Dick Cheney was talking about the possibility of reinstating the draft, and this terrified me. When they turned 18 in a few short months, would they be sent off to war to fight a battle I couldn't even fully wrap my head around; a battle fueled by immense anger, hatred, and the drive to avenge the lives of the 3,000+ people we lost that day? To avenge the families of the loss of their loved ones? The uncertainty that followed in the days, weeks and months was overwhelming. To this day, I am afraid to fly.
Looking back on that day 10 years ago, it still startles me how quickly the world can change. All it takes is just one moment. 8:45 a.m. people were going about their lives as if it were any other day. 8:46 a.m. marks the single most horrifying terrorist attack on American soil. Osama bin Laden was found and killed, after a decade in hiding, in May of 2011. The War on Terror continues.
As a nation, we struggled to our feet, staggered forward, regained our footing, held our heads high, and have since resolved to never forget. We will never forget the thousands of lives that were lost, nor the lives, the world, which remain forever changed. We have fought to rebuild, to heal, and to remember to live, truly live, without fear because that is what they tried to wrench away from us that day, along with our hope, our dreams, our security, and our faith.
May we look upon today as a reminder of how short and precious our lives are, what a blessing the gift and miracle of life truly is, and remember those who are no longer with us. May we honor the heroes of that day, those first responders, those women and men who ran in as everyone else was scrambling to run out, those few who led fellow co-workers down the stairwells to safety, and may they never be forgotten for their selfless acts of heroism, of bravery, even in the face of death.
We are Americans. We are strong, we are proud, and we will survive. God Bless us all, and God Bless the United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing. I'm exhausted today. Everyones grief has saturated the collective conscious and there's no escaping it. Today is the first day that the sun neglected to cut through the clouds in several months as if it thought gray skies would suit the day best.
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